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THE SECRET DOCTRINES OF THE ASSASSINS
NOTE: For a synopsis of this document and more information about the
history of Alamut
please refer to my Index to the History of Alamut.
THE SECRET DOCTRINES OF THE ASSASSINS
compiled by Richard Shand
ORIGINS OF THE NIZARI ISMA'ILIS
(1) The Schism in Islam
(2) Old Man of the Mountains
(3) Fate of the Isma'ilis
THE SECRET DOCTRINES OF THE ASSASSINS
(1)Schools of Thought
(2) Haqa'iq - The Esoteric Truths
(3) The Nine Degrees
(4) The Occult Tradition
Origins of the Nizari Isma'ilis
(1) The Schism in Islam
"...in the year the Christian calendar calls AD 632, a schism even
greater than the Reformation was to produce engulfed Islam. Its two
great forces, the Sunnis and the Shi'ites, became irrevocably
divided. The Shi'ites insisted that the leadership of Islam should
have remained in the Prophet's family and, upon his death, they had
pledged their support to Mohammed's cousin, Ali, who became Caliph or
successor to the Prophet."
- Gordon Thomas, Journey into Madness
"...Legend has it that Mohammed's son-in-law Sidina 'Ali, the ideal
warrior, once became so caught up in the frenzy of killing that he
began to kill his own people after finishing off the enemy. His
frenzy had to be cooled down before he could stop."
- An Encyclopedia of Archetypal Symbolism
"Ali was murdered in AD 661. But, in the Shi'ite theology, Ali and
his descendants were Imams - divinely guided leaders and mediators
between God and Man, Christ-like figures on earth. There were twelve
Imams before the last disappeared in AD 940. It is a fundamental
Shi'ite belief that he is hiding in one of the vast Arabian deserts,
awaiting the right moment to re-emerge and establish a purified
Islamic government of justice...The Imam, on his return, would launch
a jihad, a holy war, more violent than any before fought over the
centuries by his Shi'ite disciples."
- Gordon Thomas, Journey into Madness
"One of the most successful secret societies which the Shi'as founded
was centered around the Abode of Learning in Cairo, which was the
training-ground for fanatics who were conditioned by the most cunning
methods to believe in a special divine mission. In order to do this,
the original democratic Islamic ideas had to be overcome by skilled
teachers, acting under the orders of the Caliph of the Fatimites, who
ruled Egypt at that time."
- Arkon Daraul, Secret Societies
"The fundamental doctrine of the Shi'a is based upon the ta'lim, or
authorized teaching. The imam was responsible for this teaching, from
which no deviation at all was possible. This is the basis of the
authority of the Shi'ite imams, and informs their role as descendants
of Ali..." "The essential division between Shi'a and Sunni is based
upon the dispute between the mutually exclusive notions that
authority may be explained by ta'lim or
that it may be explained by means of reason and analogy."
- Edward Burman, The Assassins - Holy Killers of Islam
"Much of the well-known mystical symbolism of Sufism, often best known through the
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, was taken over by the Isma'ilis. They joined Sufism and
Shiism in a peculiar and unique blend, often appearing a
s a particular group of Sufis with their own Shaykh....It would not..be surprising if
the use of hashish and other drugs for achieving mystical ecstasy was also carried
over from the Sufis."
- Edward Burman, The Assassins - Holy Killers of Islam
(2) Old Man of the Mountains
In 1074 "the Armenian general Badr al-Jamali traveled with his army from Syria to
Cairo and took effective control. From that moment, the power of the caliph was
extremely limited and the real ruler of the state was the c
ommander-in-chief of the army. the last caliphs were little more than figureheads."
"On the death of the Caliph al-Mustansir in 1094, the new commander opposed the
Caliph's own designation of his son Nizar as caliph and placed Nizar's brother
al-Musta'li on the throne... The Isma'ilis in the East [Persia
] refused to acknowledge al-Musta'li and broke off relations with the dynasty in
]Cairo."
"The dissenting group proclaimed their allegiance to the by-passed Caliph Nizar, and
it is for this reason that members of the sect which became known to history as The
Assassins were first known as the Nizari Isma'ilis."
- Edward Burman, The Assassins - Holy Killers of Islam
"'Assasseen' in Arabic signifies 'guardians', and some commentators have considered
this to be the true origin of the word: 'guardians of the secrets'."
- Arkon Daraul, Secret Societies
"Hasan-i Sabbah was a revolutionary of genius who devised and put into practice the
'new' preaching or da'wa of the Nizari Isma'ilis, which was to replace the 'old' da'wa
of the Fatimid Isma'ilis at Cairo... It is likely
that he was born around 1060 in Qom, one-hundred-and-fifty kilometers south of modern
Tehran."
"He had a fine mind, an excellent knowledge of theology, and evidently possessed the
phenomenal strength of will necessary to pursue his ideal for so many years... We can
imagine him converting the people of Daylam just a
s he had himself been converted, by patiently digging away at a potential proselyte's
religious doubts until they were strong enough to admit the possibility of an
alternative."
"Hasan-i Sabbah had managed through careful theological argument and relentless logic
applied to the Shi'a doctrines, to create a powerful sectarian sense of community
based on the traditional secrecy and conspiratorial n
ature of Isma'ilism."
"The Alborz Mountains, which rise to a maximum height of over six-thousand meters in
the volcanic Mount Damavand, constitute a natural barrier between the Caspian and the
vast gently tilting plateau which constitutes Cent
ral Iran. Although not distant as the crow field from Tehran, this mountainous area
has always been and still is remote. It was presumably for this reason that many
shi-ite sects and fleeing Isma'ilis and other Moslem her
etics had... for many centuries taken refuge in the mountain kingdom of ancient
Daylam."
Within a high mountain valley stands "the castle of Alamut, the fortress retreat of
Hasan-i Sabbah, which became almost legendary after the supposed 1273 visit of Marco
Polo and his description of the 'Old Man of the moun
tains' and the 'Ashishin'..."
- Edward Burman, The Assassins - Holy Killers of Islam
"The Old Man kept at his court such boys of twelve years old as seemed to him destined
to become courageous men. When the Old Man sent them into the garden in groups of
four, ten or twenty, he gave them hashish to drink.
They slept for three days, then they were carried sleeping into the garden where he
had them awakened."
"When these young men woke, and found themselves in the garden with all these
marvelous things, they truly believed themselves to be in paradise. And these damsels
were always with them in songs and great entertainments;
they; received everything they asked for, so that they would never have left that
garden of their own will."
"And when the Old Man wished to kill someone, he would take him and say: 'Go and do
this thing. I do this because I want to make you return to paradise'. And the
assassins go and perform the deed willingly."
- Marco Polo - on his visit to Alamut in 1273
"That Hasan-i Sabbah and other early Assassin Masters had gardens seems likely since
the garden is such an important part of Persian noble life and of mysticism. The water
channels and meticulous care to ensure regular wa
ter supplies at Assassin castles echo the care which Persian and Arab villages and
country houses today give to the presence of running water. So the legend of the
garden in which Assassins were taken probably has its ori
gins in fact."
"Many scholars have argued, and demonstrated convincingly, that the attribution of the
epithet 'hashish eaters' or 'hashish takers' is a misnomer derived from enemies the
Isma'ilis and was never used by Moslem chroniclers
or sources. It was therefore used in a pejorative sense of 'enemies' or 'disreputable
people'. This sense of the term survived into modern times with the common Egyptian
usage of the term Hashasheen in the 1930s to mean
simply 'noisy or riotous'. It is unlikely that the austere Hasan-i Sabbah indulged
personally in drug taking."
"There is no mention of that drug [hashish] in connection with the Persian Assassins -
especially in the library of Alamut ('the secret archives')."
"Once established in a secure and permanent base, Hasan sent da'is [missionaries] out
from Alamut in all directions, At the same time he pursued a policy of territorial
expansion, taking castles either by means of propaga
nda or by force, and building others... Life at Alamut, and we may suppose in the
other fortresses at this time, was characterized by extreme asceticism and severity."
"Political assassination was not unknown in Islam before Hasan-i Sabbah. Earlier sects
had used murder as a political technique, and there is evidence that Mohammed himself
disposed of his enemies by suggesting that they
did not deserve to live - and hoping that faithful followers would take the hint.
There had even been an extremist Shi'ite group known as the 'stranglers' after their
preferred method of assassination."
The word assassin "definitely entered the literary vocabulary when it was used by
Dante." In The Divine Comedy: Hell, Book XIX, "Dante describes himself as 'like a
friar who is confessing the wicked assassin':
'Io stava come il frate che confessa
Lo perfido assassin...'
"Here the strongest possible noun is required since the criminal being confessed is
being buried alive head down, thus denoting a sin of particular horror. The connection
of assassin with wickedness reinforces the clarity
and precision with which Dante used the word, and it was in this sense that
'assassin' then passed into other European languages."
- Edward Burman, The Assassins - Holy Killers of Islam
(3) Fate of the Isma'ilis
"After the destruction of Alamut by Hulegu in 1256, many members of the Nizari
Isma'ili sect are thought to have fled to Afghanistan, the Himalayas and above all
Sind... Several of them had traveled to India as early as t
he eleventh century, but the founder of the branch of the sect known as the Bohras was
probably a certain Abdullah who traveled from the Yemen and arrived in Cambay in about
1067. He traveled and teached extensively in th
e province of Gujerat, where still today the Bohras are a powerful and secretive
presence."
"The other major branch of the Isma'ilis in the East today are known as the Khojas,
who are particularly strong in what was once the Punjab but is now part of Pakistan.
Their tradition relates that a missionary known as N
u(r) Satagut, which means literally 'teacher of true light', was the first to arrive
in India. He is thought to have traveled to north-western India some time between 1160
and 1242. It was the Khoja sect which descended d
irectly from the Nizari Isma'ilis or Assassins, and on whose support the Aga Khan's
leadership of the Isma'ilis today is based."
"The present Aga Khan, correctly known as Prince Karim El Husseni, Aga Khan IV, is
recognized as the forty-ninth hereditary imam of the Isma'ilis and claims direct
descent from the Prophet Mohammed. He is recognized as he
ad of the world-wide Isma'ili sect, today estimated at between four and twenty million
in number. His income from voluntary contributions was estimated by Mihir Bose [The
Agha Khans] in 1985 to be seventy-five million pou
nds a year."
"The theology and politics of the revolutionary of genius Hasan-i Sabbah can in fact
be seen as the first original creation - both religious and political - of a
specifically Persian ethos after the conquest of the countr
y of the Arabs and consequent conversion to Islam. In this wider sense the thought and
doctrines of the inventor of the 'Assassins' may be said to have an enduring influence
in the religious and political life of the Midd
le East. This legacy is shared both the Aga Khans and by contemporary revolutionary
groups in Lebanon and Persia."
- Edward Burman, The Assassins - Holy Killers of Islam
The Secret Doctrines of the Assassins
(1) Schools of Thought
"The real problem of the Isma'ilis in general, and the Nizari Isma'ilis or Assassins
in particular, is that they were always considered heretical and persecuted by
official Islam, except for the period in which Isma'ilism
was the official religion under the Fatimid caliphs of Egypt. The consequence of this
is that no comprehensive formula of the Assassins' creed was ever generally
recognized. Their doctrines were maintained in secrecy by
the Assassins themselves, while their enemies were content to dismiss them as
heretical without studying or reporting them."
- Edward Burman, The Assassins - Holy Killers of Islam
Hasan-i Sabbah "prevented ordinary persons from delving into knowledge; and likewise
the elite from investigating former books, except those who knew the circumstances of
each book and the rank of the authors in every fie
ld. With his partisans, in theology he did not go beyond saying, our god is the god of
Mohammed."
- Shaharastani
"Islam is not a messianic religion and has no room for a saviour-messiah.
Nevertheless, there gradually developed--probably under Christian influence--the
notion of an eschatological restorer of the faith, identified as a
descendant of the Prophet or as the returning 'Isa (i.e., Jesus). He is usually
referred to as the mahdi; i.e., the '[divinely] guided one'. After the appearance of
'Isa, the last judgment will begin: the good will enter
paradise; the evil will fall into hell. Heaven and hell possess various goals and
steps of recompense for good and evil. The time before the end is viewed
pessimistically: God himself will abandon the godless world. Ka'b
ah (the great pilgrimage sanctuary of the Muslim world) will vanish, the copies of the
Qur'an will become empty paper, and its words will disappear from memory. Then the end
will draw near."
- Encyclopaedia Britannica
"In the Koran Jesus is mentioned no less than thirty-five times, under a number of
impressive appellations - including 'Messenger of God' and 'Messiah'. At no point,
however, is he regarded as anything other than a mortal
prophet, a forerunner of Mohammed and a spokesman for the single supreme God. And
like Basilides and Mani, the Koran maintains that Jesus did not die on the cross,
'they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but th
ey thought that did.' The Koran itself does not elaborate on this ambiguous statement,
but Islamic commentators do. According to most of them, there was a substitute -
generally, though not always, supposed to have been S
imon of Cyrene. Certain Muslim writers speak of Jesus hiding in a niche of a wall and
watching the Crucifixion of a surrogate as is described in the Nag Hammadi Scrolls."
- Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
The doctrine of rebirth, or more correctly transmigration was "widely accepted in
Persia, and evolved in the particular Moslem form of belief in the Mahdi, the 'one
guided by God to the truth'. The Isma'ili version of the
se ideas consisted of two schools of thought: first, a belief in Ismail himself as
immortal, and consequently that he is the Mahdi; second, some believed that Mohammed,
son of Ismail, was the Mahdi who would not die until
he had conquered the world."
"The Druzes accept reincarnation as one of the chief distinguishing principles of
their religion: their founder and apostle Hakim is held to have possessed the soul of
the twelfth imam, and it is from this fact that his a
uthority derives. Druzes, about whom we have more information than the Assassins and
whose doctrines are usually almost identical, believe that all human souls were
created together and that their number is fixed... Souls
progress though a series of transmigrations to a higher degree of excellence."
- Edward Burman, The Assassins - Holy Killers of Islam
(2) Haqa'iq - The Esoteric Truths
"The religious revolution of man was considered to have taken place in seven years
under seven Messenger Prophets, the first six of whom were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses,
Jesus and Mohammed. Each of these messengers reveal
ed a religious law in esoteric form, which was readily interpreted even by the
uninitiated: this is the zahir or external aspect. But each of these messages also
contained an inner, esoteric truth which required interpret
ation by the small number of initiates capable of receiving them: this the batin, or
esoteric truth."
"The esoteric truths themselves, haqa'iq, were explained by a successor of each of the
Messenger Prophets known as the wasi (Legates) or by the sami (Silent One) whose task
was to explain the batin of the Scriptures and L
aw. Each Legate was in turn followed by a series of seven imams, the seventh of whom
became the next messenger Prophet in the series. The last era would be marked by the
Mahdi, who would make the inner doctrine public and
inaugurate an era of pure spiritual knowledge."
"Isma'ili theology was thus revelationary in character. The haqa'iq transcended human
reason and ultimately derived from gnostic doctrines, considering the principles of
spiritual and physical worlds in Neoplatonic terms.
The Gnostics held that the physical world had been created by an inferior deity, the
Yahweh of the Old Testament, who was allowed a certain lassitude until God decided to
send His son to inhabit the body of Jesus and fre
e the world from false teachings. Certain Gnostic notions passed into Islam when
Mohammed adopted the gnostic idea that the body which was crucified was only a phantom
which the Jews and Romans could not harm."
- Edward Burman, The Assassins - Holy Killers of Islam
"The heart of the Isma'ili haqa'iq, which consists in their denial of rationalism and
forms the basis of their 'heresy', lies in the denial that God is the first cause. For
them, the first cause is the Order or Word of Go
d, which became united with the Universal Intellect. Hence the idea of the Order is at
the heart of their esoteric doctrines, and achieves their synthesis of Neoplatonic
philosophy and Islam."
"The power of Hasan-i Sabbah himself, and the fanatical devotion of the fida'i,
ultimately derived from this categorical insistence on the transcendental nature of
God. Such an absolute God, and absolute imam, demands abs
olute faith and obedience."
Group A: descended from Ali and Nizar
1 Imam
Group B: fully initiated
2 Da'i 'd-Du'at (Chief Da'i)
3 Du'i 'l-Kabir (Superior Da'i)
4 Du'i (ordinary Da'i)
Group C: partly initiated
5 Rafiq (comrade)
Group D: uninitiated
6 Lasiq (adherent)
7 Fida'i (self-sacrificer, the destroying angels)
"Although the details of the stages of initiation... derive from a historian writing
around 1332 about the Druzes... the major difference is that the degrees have... been
increased from seven to nine, perhaps to agree wit
h the nine celestial spheres."
- Edward Burman, The Assassins - Holy Killers of Islam
(3) The Nine Degrees
"Members were enrolled, on the understanding that they were to receive hidden power
and timeless wisdom which would enable them to become as important in life as some of
the teachers."
"Students had to pass through nine degrees of initiation."
First Degree
"In the first, the teachers threw their pupils into a state of doubt about all
conventional ideas, religious and political. They used false analogy and every other
device of argument to make the aspirant believe that what
he had been taught by his previous mentors was prejudiced and capable of being
challenged. The effect of this, according to the Arab historian, Makrizi, was to cause
him to lean upon the personality of the teachers, as t
he only possible source of the proper interpretation of facts. At the same time, the
teachers hinted continually that formal knowledge was merely the cloak for hidden,
inner and powerful truth, whose secret would be impar
ted when the youth was ready to receive it. This 'confusion technique' was carried out
until the student reached the stage where he was prepared to swear a vow of blind
allegiance to one or other of his teachers."
Second Degree
"The neophyte is taught to believe that God's approval cannot be won by observing the
prescriptions of Islam, unless the inner Doctrine, of which they are mere symbols, be
received from the Imam to whom its guardianship h
as been entrusted."
Third Degree
"The neophyte is instructed as to the nature and number of the Imams, and is taught to
recognize the significance in the spiritual and material worlds of the number Seven
which they also represent. He is thus definitely d
etached from the Imamiyya of the Sect of the Twelve, and is taught to regard the last
six of their imams as persons devoid of spiritual knowledge and unworthy of reverence."
Fourth Degree
"The neophyte is now taught the doctrine of the Seven Prophetic Periods, of the nature
of the Natiq, the Sus or Asas and the remaining six Samits ('Silent' imams) who
succeed the latter, and of the abrogation by each Nati
q of the religion of his predecessor. This teaching involves the admission (which
definitely places the proselyte outside the pale of Islam) that Mohammed was not the
last of the Prophets, and that the Qur'an is not God's
final revelation to man. With Mohammed b. Isma'ili, the Seventh and Last Natiq, the
Qu'im ('He who ariseth'), the Sahibu 'i-Amr ('Master of the Matter'), an end is put to
the 'Sciences of the Ancients' (Ulumu 'l-awwalin)
, and the Esoteric (Batini) Doctrine, the Science of Allegorical Interpretation
(Ta'wil), is inaugurated."
Fifth Degree
"Here the proselyte is further instructed in the Science of Numbers and in the
application of the ta'wil, so that he discards many of the traditions, learns to speak
contemptuously of the state of Religion, pays less and
less heed to the letter of Scripture, and looks forward to the abolition of all
outward observances of Islam. He is also taught the significance of the number Twelve,
and the recognition of the twelve Hujjas or 'Proofs',
who primarily conduct the propaganda of each Imam. These are typified in man's body by
the twelve dorsal vertebrae, while the seven cervical vertebrae represent the Seven
Prophets and the Seven Imams of each."
Sixth Degree
"Here the proselyte is taught the allegorical meaning of the rites and obligations of
Islam, such as prayer, alms, pilgrimage, fasting, and the like, and is then persuaded
that their outward observance is a matter of no i
mportance, and may be abandoned, since they were only instituted by wise and
philosophical lawgivers as a check to restrain the vulgar and unenlightened herd."
Seventh Degree
"To this and the following degrees only the leading da'is, who fully comprehend the
real nature and aim of their doctrine, were initiated. At this point is introduced the
dualistic doctrine of the Pre-existent and the Sub
sequent, which is destined ultimately to undermine the proselyte's belief in the
Doctrine of the Divine Unity."
Eight Degree
"Here the doctrine last mentioned is developed and applied, and the proselyte is
taught that above the Pre-existent and the Subsequent is a Being who has neither name,
nor attribute, of whom nothing can be predicted, and
to whom no worship can be rendered. This Nameless Being seems to represent the Zerwan
Akanana ('Boundless Time') of the Zoroastrian system, but...some confusion exists
here, and different teachings were current amongst th
e Isma'ilis, which, however, agreed in this, that, to quote Nuwayri's expression,
'those who adopted them could no longer be reckoned otherwise than amongst the
Dualists and Materialists'. The proselyte is also taught tha
t a Prophet is known as such not by miracles, but by his ability to construct and
impose in a kind of system at once political, social, religious, and
philosophical...He is further taught to understand allegorically the e
nd of the world, the Resurrection, Future Rewards and Punishments, and other
eschatological doctrines."
- Arkon Daraul, Secret Societies
Ninth Degree
"In this, the last degree of initiation, every vestige of dogmatic religion has been
practically cast aside, and the initiate is become a philosopher pure and simple, free
to adopt such system or admixture as may be most
to his taste."
- Edward Granville Brown, in St Bart's Hospital Journal (March 1897)
"The seventh degree brought revelation of the Great secret: that all humanity and all
creation were one and every single thing was a part of the whole, which included the
creative and destructive power. But, as an Isma'il
i, the individual could make use of the power which was ready to be awakened within
him, and overcome those who knew nothing of the immense potential of the rest of
humanity. This power came through the aid of the mysteri
ous power called the Lord of the Time."
"To qualify for the eighth degree, the aspirant had to believe that all religion,
philosophy and the like were fraudulent. All that mattered was the individual, who
could attain fulfillment only through servitude to the g
reatest developed power - the Imam. The ninth and last degree brought the revelation
of the secret that there was no such thing as belief: all that mattered was action.
And the only possessor of the reasons for carrying o
ut any action was the chief of the sect."
- Arkon Daraul, Secret Societies
The basis of these steps of graded knowledge was derived from the "Brethren of
Sincerity".
(4) The Occult Tradition
"Khadhulu is the Arabic word meaning 'abandoner' or 'forsaker'... Khadhulu is a type
of spiritual force that powers the practices of Tafrid and Tajrid. These are exercises
that are used to transcend (abandon) normal cultu
ral programming. The idea is that by transcending (abandoning) Dogma and fixed beliefs
a person can see reality as it is. Khadhulu is stimulated by the Nafs (breath or
soul). The stimulated 'abandoner' then causes the Hal
or spiritual state. Khadhulu appears in the Quran (25:29)... The verse translates as
'Mankind, Shaitan is al khadhulu'. They have explained two orthodox interpretations of
this verse to me the first is that Shaitan will
abandon man. The other is that Shaitan causes men to forsake Islam
and its culture. You'll note that this second interpretation is
fairly consistent with the spiritual meaning the ancient Muqarribun
give Khadhulu . (Obviously an orthodox Muslim would think Muqarribun
practices Sinful.) This verse in the Quran is important because it
links the 'abandoner' Khadhulu with Shaitan the Old Dragon, Lord of
the Abyss."
- Parker Ryan, The Necronomicon and Ancient Arab Magick
"At least part of the veneration of Sinan was based on his well-
attested powers of telepathy and clairvoyance, such as the cases
reported by Abu Firas of him answering questions thought outside his
window. Hasan-i Sabbah himself was renowned in his own day as an
alchemist. That the Assassins engaged in what would now be described
as occult practices seems therefore to be beyond doubt. The
'sciences' of alchemy and astrology were then part of philosophical
studies."
- Edward Burman, The Assassins - Holy Killers of Islam
"From the Isma'ilis the Crusaders borrowed the conception which led
to the formation of all the secret societies, religious and secular,
of Europe. The institutions of Templars and Hospitallers; the Society
of Jesus, founded by Ignatius Loyola, composed by a body of men whose
devotion to their cause can hardly be surpassed in our time; the
ferocious Dominicans. the milder Franciscans - may all be traced
either to Cairo or to Alamut. The Knights Templar especially, with
their system of grand masters, grand priors and religious devotees,
and their degrees of initiation, bear the strongest analogy to the
Eastern Isma'ilis."
- S. Ameer Ali
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screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
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